Simpson Trustees Welcome Five New Members

The Simpson College Board of Trustees added five new members during its May meeting. Each will serve at least a three-year term.

They are:

Michael DeVito

Michael DeVito leads the Wells Fargo Home Mortgage (WFHM) Servicing organization, which services mortgage loans and home equity products for more than 12 million customers. That’s one in every six mortgage loans in the United States and more than $1 trillion in mortgage loans for investors. He is located in Des Moines.

A 25-year veteran in financial services, DeVito joined Wells Fargo in 1996. Most recently he led WFHM Default Servicing. Prior to that position, he held a series of leadership roles in mortgage and consumer lending, including head of Wells Fargo Education Financial Services and head of Mortgage Retail Fulfillment and Underwriting.

DeVito holds a Bachelor of Science degree in accounting from Ithaca College in Ithaca, New York.

Jared Gillespie ‘02

Jared Gillespie works at Principal Financial Group as a Senior Client Service Manager. He earned a Bachelor of Arts degree in management from Simpson College in 2002.

His responsibilities at Principal include overseeing a department as well as being a direct client representative for several larger accounts. He specializes in large for-profit corporate accounts. He attends alumni events on campus and has volunteered for scholarship days. He and his wife, Heidi, live in Waukee.

He will serve one three-year term as a young trustee on the board.

Sean M. Kennedy ‘92

Sean Kennedy serves as President and Chief Executive Officer of the IMT Group, parent company to IMT Insurance Company and Wadena Insurance Company in West Des Moines. Before moving into his current position, he spent 18-plus years in the actuarial science realm, including leadership roles with the IMT Group and FBL Financial Group. Responsibilities included research and development, appointed actuary, loss reserving, predictive modeling, pricing, enterprise risk management, agent compensation and product development.

Sean is a 1992 graduate of Simpson College with a bachelor’s degree in Mathematics and Economics. He is a Fellow of the Casualty Actuarial Society and an active member of the American Academy of Actuaries. He also holds a CPCU, AIM, ARe, AIS and API, along with an Executive Certificate in Leadership from Notre Dame.

Sean resides in rural central Iowa with his wife and five children.

Alejandro Munoz

Alejandro Munoz is vice president, Global Commercial Business. He leads DuPont Pioneer’s commercial business across all regions: Africa, Europe, Latin America, North America, North Asia and South Asia. He is also a member of the DuPont Pioneer Enterprise Leadership Council.

Having worked at Pioneer for more than 33 years, Alejandro has served in a number of positions around the world. He began his career as quality control manager in Latin America in 1981. Two years later, he became responsible for market development and production for Central America, Andean Pact and the Caribbean.

He was then promoted to operations manager, Pioneer Mexico, in 1988, and was appointed general manager of Hibridos Pioneer de Mexico, S.A. de C.V. in 1991. Alejandro was named Pioneer general manager, Argentina, in 1999, and promoted to director, Latin America, in 2004. In 2005, he moved to Switzerland to serve as Operations director, Europe, and was then promoted to vice president, Europe Operations, in 2006. Prior to his current assignment, Alejandro was vice president for the Americas and global production.

Alejandro holds a Bachelor of Science degree in agronomy from the National University of Costa Rica. He completed specialization courses in finance and accounting at the University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton Graduate School of Business and in marketing at the University of Stanford’s Graduate School of Business.

Alejandro is married with three children.

J. Ann Selzer

J. Ann Selzer is president of Selzer & Company Inc., a position she has held since 1996. The company focuses on providing high quality audience research for media clients and others who seek insight into how to best communicate with their members, customers or the public.

Services include surveys, focus groups, one-on-one interviews and analysis. The company has expertise in media research for newspapers, health policy, magazines and books. In addition, the company conducts The Iowa Poll for The Des Moines Register, the Bloomberg National News Poll and the Bloomberg Global Poll for Bloomberg News.

From 1989 to 1996, Ann was co-owner of Selzer Boddy Inc., which conducted communication research and produced professional videos and television programs for a broad range of clients. She served as research and manager for the Iowa Poll from 1987 to 1992.

Ann earned a Bachelor of Arts with distinction in Speech and Drama from the University of Kansas in 1978, a master’s degree in Communication Theory and Research from the University of Iowa in 1981, and a Ph.D. in Communication Theory and Research from the University of Iowa in 1984.

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